Effective Learning Strategies to Share with Your Coaching Clients

“Learning how to learn” specifically having a set of go-to learning strategies give you an overview of how to best assimilate this information and incorporate it into your life skills. As a life coach, health and wellness coach, or professional fitness trainer, it also gives you a template to understand where your clients, employees, customers, colleagues, and others might be blocking themselves from moving forward so that you can better influence them toward their results.

Elements of Effective Learning Strategies

Begin in a Positive State

“Think of a time when you were able to learn something easily and rapidly.”This question will bring up an example or experience of a time when learning was successful for you or your client. As you remember this specific event, imagine you are back in the experience and sense what it was like to be there. This will associate you into the experience. To associate means to imagine being in the event and “re-feel” what you felt then. This becomes an “anchor” or resource memory to attach to something that is naturally occurring in the future. For instance, attach a memory state of your being confident and calm, so when you pick up a pencil or pen before taking a test. Some useful positive states for learning is curiosity, openness, playfulness, and willingness to not know or not be perfect.

“Chunk Down” to Manageable Size Pieces

“What is the first step?” or, “What has to happen first in order to achieve your goal? Gather precise information about the goal, and break down or “chunk it down” into manageable size tasks or steps on the way to the bigger goal. Then set a target for completing the first chunk and moving onto the next step of the plan or procedure.

Feedback from the Task Itself

There is no failure, only feedback. “Notice what is working.” “Did that action move you closer to the goal or did you learn what doesn’t work and can adjust for a better approach?” “What will you do differently next time?”As we are creating positive change and experimenting with what works, or not, an action either brings us closer to our goal or it takes us in another direction. By not getting attached to the immediate result, we can take feedback and adjust, update the plan, and keep going.

Compare your Ability now with your Ability in the Past.

“How much progress are you making toward your goal?” How far have you come and what step is next–keep the goal in mind.”Remember to compare self to self, not self to an expert! It is appropriate to have a mentor or someone with expertise as a model to strive towards. However, if we compare our self to the expert it can create an expectation that is not a fair comparison for the person learning. The challenge is to focus on personal progress in relation to the goal. We want to have good mentors and guides in our lives, and we have to make our comparisons based on fact, level of competency and progress, and time inaction.

Convincer Strategy

“How do you know when you have learned well enough?” “How do you know you have the results you have wanted? ”Having an exit strategy is crucial for success. It is important to be able to recognize when you have studied enough, read enough, practiced enough for now and are ready to move toward the goal and those dreams beyond.

Confusion to Practice to Understanding

“Wow, I’ve never experienced this before–I’m excited to learn!”Be fascinated rather than defeated. Keep encouraging yourself, create a positive coaching voice inside of your head. People who are excellent as learners relish confusion and challenges, and know that they will be solving the puzzle or gaining expertise and adding to their lives as they strive for clarity and results. Remember to have the patience to move through the stages of learning we talked about earlier.

Future-Pace Learnings

“Where, when and with whom will these new learnings or strategies be used? ”Be sure to finish any learning experience with an imagined projection of having access to the new information and tools in your future. This gives your brain an automatic “dress rehearsal” for results. By associating or connecting the new pattern with future events, when the event arrives it will be more familiar (safe)and comfortable. When we visualize a thought, the brain believes it is true. There is less resistance when we are familiar. It also helps us fine-tune our goals and priorities. The following are some suggested questions for helping a person know where they are in the strategy of learning how to learn.

Your Coaching Career

If you are passionate about helping people and living a fulfilling life, we can help you achieve your dreams right now. The Life Strategies Coaching Certification Course combines the latest advancements in human potential and neuroscience with proven methods of success used by the world’s most productive people.